Ty Rushing

I honestly couldn’t tell you the last time I became really emotional in a movie theater before I saw “Storm Lake” on Monday. This is not me pretending I’m some super macho guy who doesn’t ever cry or express his emotions; I just don’t get teary in theaters. However, if I’m at home, it is…

Many of Iowa’s school board races in November are shaping up to be unusually hyper-partisan contests, with far-right candidates challenging incumbents over masking policies and the teaching of American history. In several high-profile cases, they’re being publicly backed by local fringe activists and groups who often promote disinformation about COVID, among other topics. In Ankeny,…

Some of Iowa’s anti-mask mandate parents have a new strategy to get what they want: threatening to defund public education by temporarily pulling their children out of school. Jeff Fahrmann of Ankeny started a petition that opposed the Ankeny School District implementing any sort of mask mandate following Monday’s ruling by a federal judge that…

The past is starting to catch up with an Arizona company whose traveling taco festivals have left a sour taste in the mouths of its attendees. Organizers in Wisconsin canceled the upcoming Madison Taco Festival citing complaints from other cities and media reports— including from Iowa Starting Line—about AZ Food Festivals LLC, the fly-by-night operation…

Ivermectin—a livestock dewormer some COVID minimizers falsely think can cure the disease—has become a recent mainstay on Google Trends for American internet users. Health agencies across the country warn Americans not to use the drug as a preventative measure or treatment option for COVID. This week, hospitals in Oklahoma reported being overwhelmed by emergency room…

Doug Jensen is going back to jail due in part to Mike Lindell after he violated his pre-trial release conditions to watch the pillow entrepreneur spout conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election. The Des Moines man, who stormed the US Capitol Building on Jan. 6 while clad in a QAnon T-shirt, had his home…

Waterloo native Nikole Hannah-Jones is launching a free, after-school program in her hometown aimed at improving literacy while also centering the Black experience as part of the curriculum. The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist announced the 1619 Freedom School through her Twitter account on Tuesday. For the inaugural year, the program will focus on fourth-grade students at…

Chuck Grassley seemed to question whether science has proven that masks help mitigate the spread of COVID-19 after being asked about it during a Keokuk County town hall on Tuesday. Family Nurse Practitioner Barbara Coffman posed the question to Iowa’s senior US senator after sharing her concerns that the health care system could be overwhelmed…

A guest column written by a budding science teacher and published by The Des Moines Register titled “COVID-19 is not a concern for young people” quickly drew ire on social media after going online on Wednesday. Colin Coulter, who wrote the piece, earned an undergraduate biology degree from Iowa State University in 2012 and is…

You could call Tuesday’s Woodbury County Board of Supervisors meeting an airing of grievances as activists, community members, and union officials clashed with board members over the use of American Rescue Plan funds. The reason for the conflict is the upcoming Woodbury County Law Enforcement Center, which voters approved last year to replace a 34-year-old…